Customer service call processing and support agent access application

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are a method and apparatus of receiving and processing customer support calls. The calls may be initiated from a mobile/wireless device via a call function or via a mobile device application. An example method of operation may provide receiving a call from a mobile device and identifying the call as a customer service support inquiry. The method may further provide intercepting the call and redirecting the call to an interactive voice response proxy device responsive to identifying the call as a customer service support inquiry, accessing a database responsive to receiving the call and retrieving a data record that was created when the call was initiated. The data record may include a mobile device identifier of the mobile device and a present inquiry identifier of a type of customer support inquiry associated with the call and the method may also include identifying the customer inquiry and a customer profile stored on the data record, and determining a location to route the call based on at least one of the customer inquiry and the customer profile information on the data record.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation from U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/333,386 entitled “CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL PROCESSING AND SUPPORT AGENTACCESS APPLICATION” filed on Oct. 25, 2016, which is a continuation fromand claims priority from patent application Ser. No. 14/139,010 entitled“CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL PROCESSING AND SUPPORT AGENT ACCESS APPLICATION”filed on Dec. 23, 2013, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 9,479,644, which is acontinuation from and claims priority from provisional patentapplication No. 61/755,813 entitled “CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL PROCESSINGAND MOBILE DEVICE APPLICATION SUPPORT” filed on Jan. 23, 2013, theentire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE APPLICATION

This application relates to a method and apparatus of receiving acustomer service call via a mobile device and processing the call toinvoke a customer service application on the mobile device withoutrequiring a customer service representative to answer the call.

BACKGROUND OF THE APPLICATION

Conventionally, when a subscriber of a particular service, (e.g., cabletelevision, online account, etc.) has a problem or needs assistancemanaging his or her account, the user's only recourse was to dial atelephone number, be placed on hold and begin navigating a touch padmenu, such as a dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) interface. In recentyears, voice recognition or interactive voice response (IVR) systems areable to provide menu options that involve the subscriber speakingcertain responses into their phone devices. The voice responses arereceived and processed into digital signals which are matched againstcertain options associated with the spoken responses.

Receiving a call, offering IVR menu options and presenting options tosubscribers still requires an expensive call processing platform that istied to customer service representatives. In recent years, mobile deviceapplications and online services have offered users with variousupgrade, support, cancellation, and other service options. When a userattempts to call a customer service center, the call may be furtherintegrated with the user's online resources to reduce the amount ofinteractions requiring a live customer service representative.

SUMMARY OF THE APPLICATION

One example embodiment of the present application may provide a methodthat includes receiving a call from a mobile device, identifying thecall as a customer service support inquiry and intercepting the call andredirecting the call to an interactive voice response proxy deviceresponsive to identifying the call as a customer service supportinquiry. The method may also include accessing a database responsive toreceiving the call and retrieving a data record that was created whenthe call was initiated, the data record including a mobile deviceidentifier of the mobile device and a present inquiry identifier of atype of customer support inquiry associated with the call, identifyingthe customer inquiry and a customer profile stored on the data record,and determining a location to route the call based on at least one ofthe customer inquiry and the customer profile information on the datarecord.

Another example embodiment may provide an apparatus that includes areceiver configured to receive a call from a mobile device, and aprocessor configured to identify the call as a customer service supportinquiry, intercept the call and redirect the call to an interactivevoice response proxy device responsive to identifying the call as acustomer service support inquiry, access a database responsive to thecall being received and retrieve a data record that was created when thecall was initiated, the data record including a mobile device identifierof the mobile device and a present inquiry identifier of a type ofcustomer support inquiry associated with the call, identify the customerinquiry and a customer profile stored on the data record, and determinea location to route the call based on at least one of the customerinquiry and the customer profile information on the data record.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a network system configuration according to exampleembodiments of the present application.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example flow diagram according to exampleembodiments of the present application.

FIG. 2B illustrates another example flow diagram according to exampleembodiments of the present application.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example communication network configured tovalidate and access customer agent support according to exampleembodiments of the present application.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example system diagram of communication signalingamong various system components according to example embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates a system configuration that is configured to performone or more operations corresponding to the example embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example network entity device configured to storeinstructions, software, and corresponding hardware for executing thesame, according to example embodiments of the present application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE APPLICATION

It will be readily understood that the components of the presentapplication, as generally described and illustrated in the figuresherein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of differentconfigurations. Thus, the following detailed description of theembodiments of a method, apparatus, and system, as represented in theattached figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the applicationas claimed, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of theapplication.

The features, structures, or characteristics of the applicationdescribed throughout this specification may be combined in any suitablemanner in one or more embodiments. For example, the usage of the phrases“example embodiments”, “some embodiments”, or other similar language,throughout this specification refers to the fact that a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the presentapplication. Thus, appearances of the phrases “example embodiments”, “insome embodiments”, “in other embodiments”, or other similar language,throughout this specification do not necessarily all refer to the samegroup of embodiments, and the described features, structures, orcharacteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments.

In addition, while the term “message” has been used in the descriptionof embodiments of the present application, the application may beapplied to many types of network data, such as, packet, frame, datagram,etc. For purposes of this application, the term “message” also includespacket, frame, datagram, and any equivalents thereof. Furthermore, whilecertain types of messages and signaling are depicted in exemplaryembodiments of the application, the application is not limited to acertain type of message, and the application is not limited to a certaintype of signaling.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network and call processingsystem according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 1, thenetwork 100 includes a customer 110 operating a mobile device 112 anddialing a call to a customer service call processing system 120. Thecall may be placed by calling a “1-800-xxx-xxxx” number or othertelephone number that utilizes a carrier network 140 to route the callto the call center 120. The call may be initially received by aninteractive voice response (IVR) call processing sub-system and/orserver 122. The device may be a computer, laptop, mobile, wireless orcellular phone, a PDA, a tablet, a client a server or any device thatcontains a processor and/or memory, whether that processor or memoryperforms a function related to an embodiment of the invention.

In operation, the customer 110 may dial a customer service telephonenumber via his or her mobile device 112. The call may be routed via asignaling operation 152 to an IVR call processing server 122. The IVRcall processing server 122 may have multiple different statuses, such asdormant, energy saving and/or unresponsive, aware and passive, and/oraware and active. A dormant state may be a quiet state where no callsare present or are currently in queue to be processed. The aware andpassive state may be a state where the server 122 is aware of anincoming call(s), which may be identified in a call queue or may havebeen received by the server 122. However, such calls received frommobile device users may not be readily accepted by an IVR menu optionprocessing module of the IVR call processing server 122. Instead, theIVR processing server 122 may receive a call and not invoke an IVR callprocessing menu option and may instead reference the caller'sidentification information, telephone number and other information todetermine how to process the call.

In operation, once the IVR call processing server 122, receives thecall, the receiving of the call may invoke an intermediate state or anaware passive state that then identifies a customer record stored in acustomer record database 126 that matched the call number. The customerrecord may be a data file or database entry that identifies the callerby his or her device telephone number and the number of times the callerhas accessed the call processing IVR system (e.g., the last 90 days, 60days, 30 days), how new the customer account is to the subscriptionservices (e.g., 10 days, 30 days, 90 days), any special treatmentindicators (e.g., special needs client, platinum/highest paidsubscription package member, paid subscription to services, etc.). Thedata file may then calculate a score or provide an indicator as towhether the mobile device 112 is entitled to access the IVR help menu.The IVR call processing server 122 may perform such a determination atcall processing operation 154 and then determine whether to allow theIVR menu to be presented to the mobile device 112. If the IVR callprocessing server 122 invokes the IVR menu option then it may elevate astatus of the call processing server 122 from the aware passive state tothe active state, which automatically invokes the IVR menu options beinginitiated and transmitted to the mobile device 112 via the ongoing voicecall. The mobile device may now be able to process the call and respondto IVR menu prompts to reach the appropriate services.

According to another example, if the IVR call processing server 122,while in the aware passive state is unable to determine a mobile devicestatus and/or identifies the mobile device 112 as not being entitled tothe IVR call processing menu, then the call is processed to presentother options to the customer unrelated to live call interaction. Forexample, the user may have called into the customer service IVR menu toomany times in one month and/or may not be subscribed to receive the livecall agent privileges, etc., and the call may be terminated and/orrejected by the call processing server 122. As a result, the callprocessing server 122 may remain in the aware passive state and notpermit call elevation to another more active and responsive state, suchas the active state.

Upon identifying that the call will not be processed by the IVR serveroperations, menus, functions, etc. The call may be immediately forwardedto the SMS message server 124 via a communication operation 156 and themobile device telephone number may be automatically invoked into a SMSmessage creation procedure that generates a SMS message that identifiesthe mobile device, and which informs the mobile device of a web link URLor other information link to select to use an online application. Also,a login page may be invoked by the SMS message when it is accepted andpushed to the mobile device 112. The SMS message may include anapplication identified used as a trigger to invoke an installedapplication on the mobile device to load and begin operating so the usermay select the menu options or other information to assist with theuser's problems. Also, a non-installed application may be automaticallyinstalled by the SMS message being received and/or selected by the user.The SMS message may be sent at signaling operation 158 to the mobiledevice 112 to begin the application based support functions.

Once the mobile device 112 receives the SMS message, the application maybe invoked and a shortcut set of menu options 160 may be presented onthe device display to solicit a user response. For example, the user mayselect “1” for upgrades to service, or “2” for cancellation of servicesand/or “3” for technical support. According to one example, the userpresented options and menu invocation presented on the device displaymay be specific to a pre-diagnosis performed by the IVR call processingserver 122. For example, the IVR call processing server 122 while in theaware and passive state may permit a single menu option to the user toobtain a basic understanding of the customer's purpose for calling. Forexample, the IVR call processing server 122 may invoke a basicthree-option menu to permit a user to select a reason for calling. Theselection may invoke a decision as to whether the IVR server 122 willterminate the call, reject the call, re-route the call, etc. Forexample, the user may receive the single menu prompt from the automatedIVR call processing system and identify “1”—“service upgrades” as thereason for calling. The IVR call processing system may be setup toimmediately reject the call and not invoke any additional menu optionsto be presented to the mobile device 112. Instead, the IVR call server122 may forward a problem identifier to the SMS message server 124 thatnotifies the type of problem the customer is experiencing based on thefeedback received from the IVR call server 122. The SMS message server124 may then communicate with the mobile device via the carrier network140 or the data network 130 via a SMS message. As a result, the SMSmessage generated may include a tag identifier that invokes a specificmenu option on the user's customer support application so the user ispresented with an application page that is directly related to theproblem/inquiry currently experienced by the customer 110.

FIG. 2A illustrates one example method of operation which may includethe IVR call processing server 122 receiving a call from the mobiledevice 112 at operation 202. The call may be a request for customerservice and the caller of the mobile device may be seeking access to acustomer service representative. The call processing server may be anIVR server and/or may have an IVR call processing module configured toprocess calls via IVR menu options and feedback. The call processingserver may also include a message redirect call processing module thatdrops, terminates, re-routes, rejects or partially processes calls.

The example method of operation may also include identifying a purposeassociated with the call at operation 204 and transmitting the call tothe message redirect call processing module responsive to identifyingthe purpose of the call as a request for customer service support atoperation 206. The method may also include creating a redirect messageinstructing the mobile device to initiate a customer service supportapplication that operates via a data network via operation 208, andtransmitting the redirect message to the mobile device at operation 210.The redirect message is a short message service (SMS) message.

In most instances, the call server or IVR call processing server and/ormodule is setup to reject every call received at least partially. In oneexample, only a designated ‘X’ number of calls are permitted in aparticular time period to be received and processed through the IVR. Forexample, only 3 calls per month may be allowed from a particular mobilenumber to access and be processed by the IVR system. Any calls afterthat number may be met with a message that the user has exceeded thelimit or that their call will not be allowed through or that they needto access the application and retrieve information via their mobiledevices for further assistance, or that they need to download such anapplication or they will be required to pay for the service this time.Only numbers from certain mobile devices may be permitted to access theIVR. For example, only numbers from devices associated with morelucrative or privileged accounts (e.g., platinum level, handicap, etc.)can access the IVR service center and perhaps even a live agent. Othersmust use an application first (or other information) on their devicesfor further assistance or they need to download such an application orcan pay for the service. The users may be able to walk through anapplication based help session and receive a privileged code if theystill need help via the online dialing tool after all options on themobile device have been exhausted.

The SMS message received by the mobile device may include an applicationlaunch trigger that initiates the customer service support application.The example method of operation may also include terminating the callprior to transmitting the redirect message to the mobile device, and ifthe purpose of the call is identified as being different from a requestfor customer service support, then transmitting the call to the IVR callprocessing module. The purpose of the call may be determined based onthe telephone number dialed by the mobile device or based on metadataincluded with the call or based on a preliminary feedback screeningperformed by the call processing server. For example, the purpose of thecall may be determined based on a menu option selection performed on amobile device application used to initiate dialing of the call.

FIG. 2B illustrates another example method of operation 220. Referringto FIG. 2B, the method may include receiving a call at a customersupport server from a mobile device at operation 222, the customersupport server may include an interactive voice response (IVR)processing module. The method may also include identifying the call as arequest for customer service support at operation 224 and rejecting theIVR processing module and terminating the call responsive to identifyingthe call as a request for customer service support at operation 226. Themethod may also include creating a data message and transmitting thedata message to the mobile device over a data network, the data messagemay include an application trigger that initiates an application with acustomer support function at operation 228.

According to another example embodiment, the communication between acustomer and an agent may be setup and processed via the user's customersupport application on his or her mobile device. However, the agent mayrequire a degree of privacy and separation from the customer especiallyin an outsourced or unconventional environment. For example, thecustomer service agent may not be on the other side of a private branchexchange (PBX) and may be operating from his or her own mobile device.In this case with the customer service representative operating a mobiledevice, which is becoming increasingly popular as landline services arebecoming less common, the customer service agent requires a degree ofprivacy so the customer will not call them back on their personal phoneline.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example communication network configured tovalidate and access customer agent support according to exampleembodiments of the present application 1. Referring to FIG. 3A, thenetwork configuration 300 includes a call processing center or customerservice center 320 with a carrier network call processing supportinfrastructure and an interactive voice response proxy server 322 for‘proxying’ calls initiated by the customer 310 via his or her mobiledevice 312. The call processing service center 320 also provides a SMSmessage processing server 324 to communicate with a customer via theircorresponding data network 330 and related services supported by theirmobile device 312.

In operation, one example method of operation may include receiving acall from a mobile device at the call processing center 320. The callmay be initiated as a push button selection on a mobile deviceapplication or via a dial pad call feature of the device. The call maybe directed to a customer support telephone number 331. The call maynever reach the carrier phone network 340 and may be cross-referencedwith a database and/or data file of numbers to be redirected uponinitial dialing efforts. Once the redirect is performed 332, the callmay be transmitted to the data network 330 which forwards the call as adata message, text message, SMS message, etc. instead of phone call to aIVR call proxy server 322. The method may also include identifying thecall as a customer service support inquiry, intercepting the call andredirecting the call to the interactive voice response proxy server 322responsive to identifying the call as a customer service supportinquiry. Once the call is sent to the IVR proxy 322, additionaloperations may include accessing a status database 326 responsive toreceiving the call and retrieving a data record that was created 333when the call was initiated, the data record includes a mobile deviceidentifier of the mobile device and a present inquiry identifier of atype of customer support inquiry associated with the call. The call mayalso be identified by a customer inquiry (e.g., technical support,service upgrade, cancellation, etc.) and a customer profile stored onthe data record 334 which identifies the user by his or her accountstatus (e.g., basic service, platinum service, new customer, etc.). Thedatabase stored user profile may provide information used fordetermining whether the customer has agent access privileges which maybe offered to a new customer (e.g., first month of service, first timecalling, etc.), or a platinum subscriber paying for more services orother privileged customers, such as a special needs customer, etc. Whenthe caller is identified as having access to the agent, the call may berouted 335 to at least one of an interactive voice response menu and anagent call device 322 associated with a live agent 320.

Routing the call may also include operating an outdialer 323 callingfunction of the interactive voice response proxy device to keep theagent's telephone number from being accessible to the mobile deviceduring the call. By dialing the agent directly from the outdialer 323and connecting the call to the customer device 312 and the agent device322, the call may be maintained by a connection provided by the serverbut the reference point for the customer device 312 is the IVR callproxy server 322. The agent call device associated with the live agentmay be a mobile device. When routing the call to the agent call deviceassociated with the live agent, the call may instead by routed to a liveagent queue that automatically dials the agent call device when theagent is available. Also, the call may instead be forwarded to an IVRcall processing system prior to connecting with a live agent todetermine whether the call can be resolved via an automated menu. Theapplication operating on the mobile device 312 may be executed and aphone call option to dial a customer service support agent via theapplication is selected prior to the call being received from the mobiledevice.

According to example embodiments, the caller or user may experiencedifficulty with operating an automated menu. The menu may prompt theuser via a recorded and/or digitally create voice sample to providetheir name, username, password, account number, reason for calling, etc.However, the user may be unable to satisfy the menu requirements and maynot be able to provide the correct information in the time required. Forinstance, the user may get stuck and forgot his/her account number, orthe user may not understand questions posed by the mobile application.

The data record stored in the database prior to being connected with theIVR call may be empty or may not include any specific call processingdata. At the time the user device connects with the call processingapplication, the mobile application would send relevant data about thesession to a particular call processing platform. The data provided mayinclude a user account number, certain symptoms being encountered, andthe particular portion of the application currently being accessed bythe user device. The database may track transfer requests in progressand map data gathered during the mobile self-service session to thesubsequent incoming phone call.

When attempting to contact a user device, the call processingapplication may select an unused inbound number from a pool of numbersand return it to the mobile application. The mobile application may dialthe number received, and when the application is connected with aninbound call to that number, it has the user device connected and canassociate the incoming call with a corresponding recording in thedatabase. Once the record is retrieved from the database, the phonenumber can be freed to be used by a subsequent caller.

The IVR menu and corresponding call processing application may accessthe status database when the incoming call is being associated with datagathered by the mobile application. In some scenarios, the caller ANI ofthe user's mobile device may be identified and used to reference theuser. Since the mobile application may not be able to access the mobiledevice number (ANI), the mobile application may need to have the callerenter their mobile phone number the first time they use the mobileapplication. Even if the user has provided their mobile number to themobile application, it is possible that they have also disabled thecaller identification features, so that the IVR platform will notreceive their ANI in which case other ANI identification efforts must beperformed.

In order to determine whether the call is valid, the IVR determines eachtime a number from the number pool is used, in which case a call may bereceived or anticipated shortly thereafter. If the user disconnects orleaves the mobile application, the database record will have a timerthat will initiate or expire so the application will assume that theuser is not calling, and thus returns the number to the pool and updatesthe database record.

The agent who answers calls would typically be located in a standardcall center equipped with user telephones or call answering devices.However, the user who is seeking access to the agent may not want todisclose his or her personal phone number in order to reach the agent,as that would provide customers a way to bypass the IVR for all futureinquiries. The agent's phone number is never directly dialed by themobile phone operated by the user. Instead, the mobile phone wouldoperate the call application and dial a number which forwards the callto the IVR platform. After the IVR platform obtains the associated calldata, it is able to dial the call center with the number not disclosedto the user of the mobile application and/or is able to submit a routerequest to an enterprise routing system in order to reach the callcenter that has agents available.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example application processing and user requestrouting system configuration. Referring to FIG. 3B, the system diagram350 includes a user device 352 which initiates a service request 360 forservice via a menu option on the mobile device 352. In operation, whenthe “click-to-call” application button or menu option is selected on theuser device 352, instead of the phone or user device 352 calling a phonenumber, the call processing application 354 accesses an IVR proxy deviceand/or application and a data record is transmitted to the callprocessing application or the record is retrieved 361 so the CTI datamay be identified along with the user identification. Also, a phonenumber is received and dialed to access the IVR call center 356. On theIVR call center side of the call connection, the data record is received362, a phone number is obtained and transmitted 364, an incoming call isreceived 366, the corresponding database record is retrieved 368 thatcorresponds to that user device 352, an enterprise route request is made370 with computer telephony integrated (CTI) data, and the incoming callis bridged to the appropriate call center for connection to an agent372. The agent receives the inbound call with CTI data and conducts thesupport call accordingly.

The outdialer is an application that accepts requests and passes thoserequests onto an IVR application which executes a specific call flowwhen an answer is received on the other end. The user of a mobileapplication may be connected with an agent without having to provide thephone number of the mobile device. Also, the user of the mobileapplication may be connected with an agent at a call center while CTIdata is provided about what the user was doing in the mobileapplication. The agent would not have to re-ask the caller for datafields the caller had already entered on the mobile application. Thisprovides an intelligent routing capability to connect the user of amobile application with the best agent by being able to utilize the sameenterprise routing infrastructure used by the IVR application.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example system diagram of a call processing system400. Referring to FIG. 4, the system may include a call reception module410 that is configured to receive calls to be handled by the callprocessing system. The call may be received and processed to determinethe identity of the caller via the call processing module 420. Thecaller identity information may be stored in the caller database 440 andretrieved and updated by the call update module 430 as calls arereceived and processed.

In one example method of operation, the system 400 may perform anexample call processing function. The operations may include receiving acall from a mobile device and routing the call to an appropriatedestination via the call reception module 410, the call processingsystem may also have an interactive voice response (IVR) call processingmodule 420 and a message redirect call processing module or updatemodule 430. In operation, the received call is identified as having aparticular purpose via the call processing module 420. Next, thereceived call is transmitted to the message redirect call processingmodule responsive to identifying the purpose of the call as a requestfor customer service support. The method may also include creating aredirect message instructing the mobile device to initiate a customerservice support application via the call processing module 420 thatoperates via a data network, and transmitting the redirect message tothe mobile device via the call update module 430.

Continuing with the same example method of operation of the system 400additional operations may include the redirect message being a shortmessage service (SMS) message which includes an application launchtrigger that initiates the customer service support application. Theuser may receive the message at his or her mobile device and acorresponding application download may launch or already installed, theapplication may initiate a particular launch option that may beautomatically initiated or which may be performed responsive to a userselection operation. The method may also provide terminating the callprior to transmitting the redirect message to the mobile device orcontemporaneously. In one example, if the purpose of the call isidentified as being different from a request for customer servicesupport, then the call may be transmitted to the IVR call processingmodule and the purpose of the call is determined based on the telephonenumber associated with the mobile device and based on previously loggedcalls received from the telephone number associated with the mobiledevice. For example, a user profile of the mobile device may beretrieved and a preliminary label may be associated with the mobiledevice as “new caller”, “existing customer”, “not privileged account”,etc., to determine whether the user may receive access to a live agentor is only entitled to use the mobile device application. The purpose ofthe call may also be determined based on a menu option selectionperformed on a mobile device application used to initiate dialing of thecall (e.g., customer support, technical support, upgrade support, etc.).

Identifying the purpose associated with the call may also includeidentifying the call as a request for customer service support, and thenthe call may be rejected prior to transmitting the redirect message tothe mobile device via the IVR processing module. The call may also beterminated responsive to identifying the call as a request for customerservice support, and thereafter a plurality of short message service(SMS) messages may be transmitted to the mobile device that includecustomer service support functions and options prompting the user for aresponse and to assist the user with his or her account.

According to another example embodiment, the system 400 may beconfigured to receive a call from a mobile device, identify the call asa customer service support inquiry, intercept the call and redirect thecall to an interactive voice response proxy device responsive toidentifying the call as a customer service support inquiry. The call isnow identified as having a particular purpose and may be routedaccordingly. In order to determine more call related information, adatabase may be accessed responsive to receiving the call and a datarecord may be retrieved that was created when the call was initiated,the data record may include a mobile device identifier of the mobiledevice and a present inquiry identifier of a type of customer supportinquiry associated with the call. The customer inquiry and a customerprofile stored on the data record may be identified and a location toroute the call based on at least one of the customer inquiry and thecustomer profile information on the data record may also be identified.

Next, it may be determined whether the customer has agent accessprivileges, and if so, the call may be routed to an interactive voiceresponse menu and/or an agent call device associated with a live agent.Routing the call may include operating an outdialer calling function ofthe interactive voice response proxy device to keep the agent'stelephone number from being accessible to the mobile device during thecall. The agent call device associated with the live agent is a mobiledevice. The call request may be forwarded to an outdialer call proxyserver and the agent's phone number may be dialed from the outdialercall proxy, and the live call between the mobile device and the agentcall device may be connected via the outdialer call proxy server.Routing the call to an interactive voice response menu or the agent calldevice associated with the live agent may include routing the call to alive agent queue that automatically dials the agent call device when theagent is available. The application operating on the mobile device isexecuted and a phone call option to dial a customer service supportagent via the application is selected prior to the call being receivedfrom the mobile device and the method also include creating the datarecord in a database including the mobile device identifier of themobile device and the present inquiry identifier of the type of customersupport inquiry associated with the call responsive to executing thecall from the mobile device.

According to an example method of operation, a user may download themobile application and utilize the application to address a currentissue, such as a service failure or other question or problem thatrequires resolution. The user may desire to speak with an agent andselect a “click-to-call” button as part of the mobile application. Themobile application may automatically initiate a call function (i.e.,service call) by retrieving and inserting a data record in a statusdatabase (DB). The click-to-call service acknowledges receipt of thedata and the mobile application dials a static telephone number assignedto the service department. The automatic number identification (ANI) isused to obtain a real ANI and/or a custom key/ANI. The interactive voiceresponse service (IVR) may receive an incoming call from the mobiledevice ANI and access the status DB to confirms it's a valid call. As aresult, the IVR may dial an agent to connect with the mobile device.

According to another example embodiment, the click-to-call service mayobtain a telephone number from a pool of numbers and use that number toprocess the call dial operation. The application may then initiate acall using that telephone number selected from the pool. The IVRreceives the incoming call and accesses a status DB so the IVR confirmsit is a valid call and dials the agent accordingly. In another exampleembodiment, the mobile application may insert a mobile number into anoutdialer service to dial the service center. Thereafter, when themobile application disconnects, the outdialer dials the mobileapplication user and transfers the call to an agent queue. The outdialermay dial an agent and the agent is transferred to the mobile user whodownloaded the mobile application. The user utilizes the mobileapplication to address a support issue and if the user desires to speakwith an agent and presses the “click-to-call” button on the mobileapplication, then the short message service (SMS) sends a key to the“click-to-call” service. The “click-to-call service then sends atelephone number to dial to the application based on whatever telephonenumber was sent in the SMS content. Also, the browser could trigger aURL to send the application data from a secure link. A key may be neededto authenticate the link access which could be in a ANI field.

According to another example, the mobile application may access acontext service to dial the agent. The data needed to place the call isstored in the context service and retrieved via the ANI or via arotating dialed number identification service (DNIS) pool of availablenumber which are accessed and selected one at a time. In operation, themobile application may access the context service data that is stored inthe context service, which is similar to the ANI or rotating DNIS pooletc. Alternatively, the application may use a queue status service if noagents are currently available. The application responds to the userwith a message that all agents are busy and if whether the user desiresto schedule a call back or continue to wait. The application may thenuse a rules engine to schedule a call back at a certain time when theagent availability becomes accessible. The service may route a requestto an intelligent routing proxy server.

The operations of a method or algorithm described in connection with theembodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in acomputer program executed by a processor, or in a combination of thetwo. A computer program may be embodied on a computer readable medium,such as a storage medium. For example, a computer program may reside inrandom access memory (“RAM”), flash memory, read-only memory (“ROM”),erasable programmable read-only memory (“EPROM”), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (“EEPROM”), registers, hard disk, aremovable disk, a compact disk read-only memory (“CD-ROM”), or any otherform of storage medium known in the art.

An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to the processor such thatthe processor may read information from, and write information to, thestorage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integralto the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in anapplication specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”). In the alternative,the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components.For example FIG. 5 illustrates an example network element 500, which mayrepresent any of the above-described network components of FIG. 1, etc.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, a memory 510 and a processor 520 may bediscrete components of the network entity 500 that are used to executean application or set of operations. The application may be coded insoftware in a computer language understood by the processor 520, andstored in a computer readable medium, such as, the memory 510. Thecomputer readable medium may be a non-transitory computer readablemedium that includes tangible hardware components in addition tosoftware stored in memory. Furthermore, a software module 530 may beanother discrete entity that is part of the network entity 500, andwhich contains software instructions that may be executed by theprocessor 520. In addition to the above noted components of the networkentity 500, the network entity 500 may also have a transmitter andreceiver pair configured to receive and transmit communication signals(not shown).

Although an exemplary embodiment of the system, method, and computerreadable medium of the present invention has been illustrated in theaccompanied drawings and described in the foregoing detaileddescription, it will be understood that the invention is not limited tothe embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements,modifications, and substitutions without departing from the spirit orscope of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims.For example, the capabilities of the system of FIG. 4 can be performedby one or more of the modules or components described herein or in adistributed architecture and may include a transmitter, receiver or pairof both. For example, all or part of the functionality performed by theindividual modules, may be performed by one or more of these modules.Further, the functionality described herein may be performed at varioustimes and in relation to various events, internal or external to themodules or components. Also, the information sent between variousmodules can be sent between the modules via at least one of: a datanetwork, the Internet, a voice network, an Internet Protocol network, awireless device, a wired device and/or via plurality of protocols. Also,the messages sent or received by any of the modules may be sent orreceived directly and/or via one or more of the other modules.

One skilled in the art will appreciate that a “system” could be embodiedas a personal computer, a server, a console, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a cell phone, a tablet computing device, a smartphoneor any other suitable computing device, or combination of devices.Presenting the above-described functions as being performed by a“system” is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention inany way, but is intended to provide one example of many embodiments ofthe present invention. Indeed, methods, systems and apparatusesdisclosed herein may be implemented in localized and distributed formsconsistent with computing technology.

It should be noted that some of the system features described in thisspecification have been presented as modules, in order to moreparticularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, amodule may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom verylarge scale integration (VLSI) circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelfsemiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discretecomponents. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardwaredevices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable arraylogic, programmable logic devices, graphics processing units, or thelike.

A module may also be at least partially implemented in software forexecution by various types of processors. An identified unit ofexecutable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical orlogical blocks of computer instructions that may, for instance, beorganized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, theexecutables of an identified module need not be physically locatedtogether, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in differentlocations which, when joined logically together, comprise the module andachieve the stated purpose for the module. Further, modules may bestored on a computer-readable medium, which may be, for instance, a harddisk drive, flash device, random access memory (RAM), tape, or any othersuch medium used to store data.

Indeed, a module of executable code could be a single instruction, ormany instructions, and may even be distributed over several differentcode segments, among different programs, and across several memorydevices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustratedherein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form andorganized within any suitable type of data structure. The operationaldata may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed overdifferent locations including over different storage devices, and mayexist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system ornetwork.

It will be readily understood that the components of the invention, asgenerally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may bearranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations.Thus, the detailed description of the embodiments is not intended tolimit the scope of the invention as claimed, but is merelyrepresentative of selected embodiments of the invention.

One having ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that theinvention as discussed above may be practiced with steps in a differentorder, and/or with hardware elements in configurations that aredifferent than those which are disclosed. Therefore, although theinvention has been described based upon these preferred embodiments, itwould be apparent to those of skill in the art that certainmodifications, variations, and alternative constructions would beapparent, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention.In order to determine the metes and bounds of the invention, therefore,reference should be made to the appended claims.

While preferred embodiments of the present application have beendescribed, it is to be understood that the embodiments described areillustrative only and the scope of the application is to be definedsolely by the appended claims when considered with a full range ofequivalents and modifications (e.g., protocols, hardware devices,software platforms etc.) thereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: intercepting a customerservice support inquiry call from a mobile device; redirecting the callto an interactive voice response proxy device; retrieving a data recordcomprising a present inquiry identifier of a type of customer supportinquiry associated with the call; determining a location to route thecall based on at least one of the customer inquiry and a customerprofile information on the data record; determining whether the customerhas agent access privileges; and if so, routing the call to at least oneof an interactive voice response menu and an agent call deviceassociated with a live agent.
 2. The method of claim 1 comprisingidentifying the call as a customer service support inquiry.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein routing the call comprises operating anoutdialer calling function of the interactive voice response proxydevice to keep the agent's telephone number from being accessible to themobile device during the call.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein theagent call device associated with the live agent is a mobile device. 5.The method of claim 1, further comprising: forwarding the call requestto an outdialer call proxy server and dialing the agent's phone numberfrom the outdialer call proxy; and connecting the live call between themobile device and the agent call device via the outdialer call proxyserver.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein routing the call to at leastone of an interactive voice response menu and the agent call deviceassociated with the live agent further comprises routing the call to alive agent queue that automatically dials the agent call device when theagent is available.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the applicationoperating on the mobile device is executed and a phone call option todial a customer service support agent via the application is selectedprior to the call being received from the mobile device; and creatingthe data record in a database comprising a mobile device identifier ofthe mobile device and the present inquiry identifier of the type ofcustomer support inquiry associated with the call responsive toexecuting the call from the mobile device.
 8. An apparatus, comprising:a processor configured to: intercept a customer service support inquirycall from a mobile device; redirect the call to an interactive voiceresponse proxy device; retrieve a data record comprising a presentinquiry identifier of a type of customer support inquiry associated withthe call; determine a location to route the call based on at least oneof the customer inquiry and a customer profile information on the datarecord; determine whether the customer has agent access privileges; andif so, route the call to at least one of an interactive voice responsemenu and an agent call device associated with a live agent.
 9. Theapparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to identifythe call as a customer service support inquiry.
 10. The apparatus ofclaim 8, wherein the call is routed by an outdialer call function of theinteractive voice response proxy device to keep the agent's telephonenumber from being accessible to the mobile device during the call. 11.The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the agent call device associated withthe live agent is a mobile device.
 12. The apparatus of claim 8, whereinthe transmitter is configured to transmit the call request to anoutdialer call proxy server, dial the agent's phone number from theoutdialer call proxy, and connect the live call between the mobiledevice and the agent call device via the outdialer call proxy server.13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the call is routed to at least oneof an interactive voice response menu and the agent call deviceassociated with the live agent by using a live agent queue to store thecall and which automatically dials the agent call device when the agentis available.
 14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the applicationoperates on the mobile device and is executed and a phone call option todial a customer service support agent via the application is selectedprior to the call being received from the mobile device, and wherein theprocessor is further configured to create the data record in a databasecomprising a mobile device identifier of the mobile device and thepresent inquiry identifier of the type of customer support inquiryassociated with the call responsive to the call being executed from themobile device.
 15. A non-transitory computer readable storage mediumconfigured to store instructions that when executed cause a processor toperform: intercepting a customer service support inquiry call from amobile device; redirecting the call to an interactive voice responseproxy device; retrieving a data record comprising a present inquiryidentifier of a type of customer support inquiry associated with thecall; determining a location to route the call based on at least one ofthe customer inquiry and a customer profile information on the datarecord; determining whether the customer has agent access privileges;and if so, routing the call to at least one of an interactive voiceresponse menu and an agent call device associated with a live agent. 16.The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15configured to store instructions that when executed cause the processorto perform identifying the call as a customer service support inquiry.17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15,wherein routing the call comprises operating an outdialer callingfunction of the interactive voice response proxy device to keep theagent's telephone number from being accessible to the mobile deviceduring the call.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable storage mediumof claim 15, wherein the agent call device associated with the liveagent is a mobile device.
 19. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configuredto perform: forwarding the call request to an outdialer call proxyserver and dialing the agent's phone number from the outdialer callproxy; and connecting the live call between the mobile device and theagent call device via the outdialer call proxy server.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, whereinrouting the call to at least one of an interactive voice response menuand the agent call device associated with the live agent furthercomprises routing the call to a live agent queue that automaticallydials the agent call device when the agent is available.